Spring Cleaning -Level One

It’s that time again.  Spring is here (even though we had snow in Nebraska last week) and it is time to initiate spring housecleaning.  I think spring cleaning is a process and should be conducted at two levels or stages.   Well, Level One was accomplished on Saturday.   The objective of Level One is to clear out the clutter in the house and sell everything I possibly can at our spring garage sale.  It is so much easier to maintain a clean house and control the nanobugs if the dust collectors and knick-knacks are kept to a minimum.  Five individuals/ households contribute to our semi-annual garage sales.  We have a few rules: one day only (8-4), sell low to get rid of it all, donate the useable items left over and trash the rest.  The current economy contributed to one of our best garage sales this time.  Every paying customer and every child received a nanobugs temporary tattoo and the nanobug-adorned VW Beetle parked out front stimulated a lot of good questions about the business. 

Interestingly, lots of men were buying items usually purchased by women.  They were not buying early for Mother’s Day gifts.  Turns out they were buying tools and materials to facilitate their gainful employment.  Two guys were painters and were buying fabric remnants (cotton) for painting rags.  One young man bought used pillows and “batting” along with his fabric remnants in dark colors – he makes dog beds to supplement income. And 2 Hispanic men purchased a Wolfgang Puck hot plate (“stove”) to use in their motel rooms to prepare their meals when they travel around with their jobs. 

The women seemed to be pretty traditional in their purchases but I did find one artistic woman buying chipped bright colored dishes to take home and break in order to make a mosaic.  And one pregnant woman and her husband bought an antique dresser to adapt into a changing table for their baby.

By dusk on Saturday, the garage sale event was over, the mess was cleaned-up and we discovered some sunburn along with the usual exhaustion.  But it is so good to know that this unique method of exchanging items benefited so many and brought laughter, smiles and  fellowship as we burned a “boat-load” of calories in the 12 hours of  moving, loading and packing all the stuff as it changed hands.
 
Now I am ready for Level Two of the spring cleaning process. 

This entry was posted on December 31st, 1969 at 6:00 pm. RSS | Back to Blog Homepage.

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